Already / Not Yet View

“For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.” --- Romans 8:22—23 (KJV)

This section presents the “already/not yet” position on healing in the atonement — the view that Christ’s atoning work has secured the full redemption of the whole person, body and soul, but that the complete realization of that redemption unfolds across time. Forgiveness of sin is received now. The resurrection of the body comes at Christ’s return. Physical healing in this present age is a genuine foretaste of the coming restoration — real but not guaranteed in every case. This view is presented as its best advocates would present it: with its strongest arguments, its most compelling evidence, and an honest acknowledgment of its challenges.

The Theological Framework

The “Already/Not Yet” in New Testament Scholarship

The “already/not yet” framework is one of the most important contributions of 20th-century New Testament scholarship. It describes the fundamental tension of the Christian life: the kingdom of God has broken into history through Christ, but it has not yet been consummated. Believers live between the ages — the old age of sin, sickness, and death overlaps with the new age of redemption, restoration, and resurrection.

This framework was not invented to solve the healing debate. It emerged from careful study of how the New Testament describes the kingdom of God, and it has become one of the most widely accepted frameworks in evangelical scholarship.

Oscar Cullmann (1902—1999)

Swiss theologian Oscar Cullmann provided one of the most memorable illustrations of this framework in his landmark work Christ and Time (1946). He compared the work of Christ to the relationship between D-Day and V-Day in World War II.

D-Day — the invasion of Normandy on June 6, 1944 — was the decisive battle. From that point forward, the outcome of the war was certain. But the war continued. Soldiers still fought and died. Cities were still bombed. The enemy still held territory. Victory was assured, but it was not yet fully realized. V-Day — the final victory — came later.

Applied to the Christian life: the cross is D-Day. The decisive battle has been won. Sin, sickness, and death have been defeated in principle. But the war continues. Believers still sin, still get sick, still die. The enemy still holds territory. The full victory — the resurrection, the new creation, the end of all suffering — comes at Christ’s return. That is V-Day.

The implications for healing are profound. If the cross is D-Day, then healing is not a fiction or a fantasy — it is a real consequence of a real victory. But if V-Day has not yet come, then the full realization of that victory — including the permanent, total healing of the body — awaits the resurrection.

George Eldon Ladd (1911—1982)

George Eldon Ladd, a New Testament scholar at Fuller Theological Seminary, developed this framework in his influential work The Presence of the Future (1974). Ladd argued that the kingdom of God is both present and future — it has been inaugurated by Christ but awaits its consummation at His return.

Ladd’s contribution was to show that this tension is not a flaw in the system — it is the system. The New Testament does not present a kingdom that is entirely future (as some dispensationalists taught) or entirely present (as some charismatics implied). It presents a kingdom that is genuinely here and genuinely coming. Believers experience real manifestations of the kingdom now — forgiveness, the indwelling Spirit, spiritual gifts, healings — while groaning for the fullness that is yet to come.

Applied to the healing question, Ladd’s framework means that both the healing testimonies and the ongoing suffering of believers are explained by the same reality: the kingdom is present but not yet complete.

Key Proponents

D.A. Carson

D.A. Carson, in his commentary on Matthew in the Expositor’s Bible Commentary (1984), approaches Matthew 8:17 with characteristic precision. Carson sees Matthew’s quotation of Isaiah 53:4 as a “pattern of fulfillment” — Jesus’s healings during His earthly ministry are genuine manifestations of the Servant’s work, but they point forward to the ultimate fulfillment at the resurrection rather than establishing a blanket provision for the present age.

Carson does not deny that God heals. He denies that healing is a guaranteed atonement right. The distinction allows him to affirm both Matthew 8:17 (healing is connected to the Servant’s mission) and 2 Corinthians 12:7—10 (God sometimes purposes suffering) without contradiction.

Wayne Grudem

Wayne Grudem, in his widely used Systematic Theology (1994), explicitly addresses the healing-in-the-atonement question within an already/not yet framework. Grudem affirms that healing is available as a gift of the Spirit and that believers should pray for healing with faith. But he also affirms that full physical restoration belongs to the future resurrection.

Grudem writes from a “continuationist” perspective — he believes the gifts of the Spirit (including healing) continue in the church today. But he is not a “guaranteer” — he does not promise that every believer who prays with sufficient faith will be healed. The tension between availability and guarantee is, for Grudem, a feature of the already/not yet age in which the church lives.

Gordon Fee

Gordon Fee is perhaps the most significant figure in this discussion, because he bridges the gap between Pentecostal conviction and careful scholarship. Fee was a lifelong Assemblies of God member, a world-class New Testament scholar, and the author of The Disease of the Health and Wealth Gospels (1985) — a sharp critique of the prosperity gospel that came from within the Pentecostal tradition, not from outside it.

Fee affirmed that God heals. He had seen it and experienced it. But he rejected the teaching that healing is a covenant right that can be claimed by faith. For Fee, the prosperity gospel was not just bad theology — it was a distortion of the gospel itself, turning the good news of Christ’s grace into a transactional system where faith is currency and blessing is payment.

Fee’s position is the already/not yet view at its most pastorally sensitive: pray for healing with genuine expectation, but do not make promises that God has not made. Trust the Spirit’s work in the present while waiting for the fullness of the kingdom to come.

Sam Storms and Craig Keener

Sam Storms, a Reformed charismatic theologian and pastor, holds a continuationist position grounded in the already/not yet framework. He teaches that the gifts of the Spirit are active today, that healing is a genuine ministry of the church, and that believers should pray with bold faith — while also acknowledging that God’s timing and purposes are His own.

Craig Keener, a New Testament scholar and author of the monumental Miracles: The Credibility of the New Testament Accounts (2011), has documented healing testimonies from around the world with rigorous academic methodology. Keener does not argue that every healing claim is valid, but he does argue that the evidence for genuine miraculous healings in the global church is far stronger than Western cessationists have acknowledged. His position is that God continues to heal, that these healings are connected to the inaugurated kingdom, and that the church should expect and pray for them — without turning expectation into entitlement.

The Theological Argument at Its Best

Romans 8:22—23 — The Body Is Not Yet Redeemed

“For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.” --- Romans 8:22—23 (KJV)

Paul is explicit: believers who have the “firstfruits of the Spirit” — who are genuinely saved, genuinely indwelt, genuinely regenerate — still groan. They are still waiting for “the redemption of our body.” The body is not yet fully redeemed. Physical decay, disease, and death continue even for the most faithful believers.

This verse is devastating to any theology that claims full physical healing is available now as an atonement right. If it were, why would Spirit-filled believers still be groaning for bodily redemption?

But the verse also undermines the claim that the atonement has nothing to do with the body. Paul calls what believers are waiting for “the redemption of our body” — and he frames this as the completion of the adoption that began at conversion. The body will be redeemed. The redemption has been purchased. But its full realization is future.

1 Corinthians 15:42—44 — The Resurrection Body

“It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption: It is sown in dishonour; it is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power: It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body.” --- 1 Corinthians 15:42—44 (KJV)

Paul describes the present body as characterized by corruption, dishonor, and weakness. The resurrection body will be characterized by incorruption, glory, and power. The transformation is eschatological — it happens at the resurrection, not progressively through healing in this life.

This does not mean that healing never occurs before the resurrection. It means that permanent, complete, irreversible healing of the body is a resurrection reality. Any healing in this life, however real, is temporary — the healed person will eventually get sick again and die. Only the resurrection body is permanently free from disease and death.

The Firstfruits of the Spirit

But the already/not yet view does not stop at “not yet.” It also affirms the “already.” Paul calls the Spirit the “firstfruits” (Rom 8:23) — a term drawn from the Old Testament harvest, where the first portion of the crop was offered to God as a pledge that the full harvest was coming. The firstfruits were real fruit. They could be eaten. They were not a metaphor or a promise — they were a genuine foretaste of what was to come.

Applied to healing: if the Spirit is the firstfruits of the coming redemption, then genuine healings in this present age are foretastes of the resurrection. They are real. They are from God. They are signs that the kingdom has broken in. But they are not the full harvest. The full harvest — complete, permanent, universal healing — comes at the resurrection.

This framework explains both the healing testimonies and the ongoing suffering of believers. Both are real. Both are part of the already/not yet tension of life between the ages.

The Pattern of Redemption

The already/not yet advocate points to a consistent pattern in how the benefits of the atonement are applied:

Justification is past — believers have been declared righteous (Rom 5:1).
Sanctification is present — believers are being made holy (Phil 2:12—13).
Glorification is future — believers will be transformed at the resurrection (Rom 8:30).

Healing follows a similar pattern:

Accomplished: Christ has borne our sicknesses (Isa 53:4; Matt 8:17). The provision is real and complete.
Available: Healing is a genuine gift of the Spirit in the present age (1 Cor 12:9; James 5:14—16). Believers can and should pray for it.
Consummated: The full, permanent healing of the body comes at the resurrection (1 Cor 15:42—44; Rev 21:4). This is certain and guaranteed.

The Curse Reversed --- But Not Yet Fully

The curse-redemption arc reinforces this pattern. The curse of Genesis 3 introduced death, pain, and the conditions producing sickness. The curse of the law (Deuteronomy 28) explicitly lists diseases among its penalties. Galatians 3:13 declares that Christ redeemed us from this curse. And Revelation 22:3 promises that in the new creation, “there shall be no more curse.”

The already/not yet advocate sees the entire arc as real: Christ has redeemed believers from the curse (already), but the full removal of the curse --- including all disease and death --- awaits the new creation (not yet). Present healings are genuine anticipations of the curse’s final removal, but the removal itself is not complete in this age. The disease-curses of Deuteronomy 28 have been addressed at the cross; their full eradication belongs to the resurrection. The Curse and Redemption section in Chapter 1 treats this arc in full.

The already/not yet view holds all three stages together. It does not deny what Christ has accomplished. It does not deny what the Spirit is doing. And it does not pretend that the full consummation has already arrived.

Real-World Strengths — What This View Produces at Its Best

Theological Coherence

The already/not yet view holds together the full range of biblical evidence more comfortably than either alternative.

It accounts for Matthew 8:17 — Isaiah 53 does include physical healing; the Servant’s work encompasses the whole person. It accounts for 1 Peter 2:24 — the deepest dimension of “healed” is spiritual restoration from sin. It accounts for Romans 8:22—23 — the full redemption of the body awaits the resurrection. It accounts for 1 Corinthians 12:9 and James 5:14—16 — healing is a genuine, ongoing ministry of the Spirit. And it accounts for 2 Corinthians 12:7—10 — God sometimes purposes suffering, even for the most faithful.

No single passage is strained. No passage is explained away. The tension is not resolved by collapsing one side into the other but by recognizing that the tension itself is the point — it is the shape of life between the ages.

Pastoral Wisdom

The already/not yet view provides pastors and believers with a framework that encourages bold faith without producing false guilt.

To the sick believer: “Pray for healing. God can heal you. Ask with faith and expectation. But if healing does not come, you have not failed. God’s timing and purposes are His own, and the full healing of your body is guaranteed at the resurrection.”
To the healed believer: “Praise God. This is a real foretaste of the coming kingdom. But hold it humbly — your healing is a gift, not an achievement, and the full restoration is still to come.”
To the grieving family: “God is not absent. He is present in your suffering. And the day is coming when every tear will be wiped away.”

This pastoral approach combines the best of both traditions: the healing tradition’s expectation and the Reformed tradition’s humility before God’s sovereignty.

Honesty About Experience

The already/not yet view is honest about what believers actually experience. Some faithful believers are healed. Some are not. Some prayers for healing are answered with a dramatic yes. Some are answered with silence. Some believers experience miraculous recovery. Others die of the same disease.

The already/not yet view does not have to explain these experiences away. It does not have to tell the healed believer that their healing was psychosomatic. It does not have to tell the unhealed believer that they lack faith. It simply says: We live between the ages. The kingdom is here, and it is coming. Both realities are at work in your life.

Eschatological Hope

Even when healing does not come in this life, the already/not yet view offers a concrete, certain hope:

“And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.” --- Revelation 21:4 (KJV)

This is not a vague wish. It is a promise grounded in the same atonement that secured the forgiveness of sins. The body will be redeemed. Disease will be abolished. Death will be swallowed up in victory. The already/not yet view anchors this hope in the work of Christ while acknowledging that its fullness is future.

Room for Both Traditions

The already/not yet framework provides common ground between traditions that often talk past each other. Cessationists and charismatics can both affirm that God can heal. Both can affirm that the full healing of the body is future. Both can affirm that believers should pray for the sick. The disagreement narrows to the question of how much to expect in the present age — and even here, the already/not yet framework provides a shared vocabulary for the conversation.

This is not to say the disagreements are unimportant. They are. But the already/not yet view at least creates a space where the conversation can happen without each side dismissing the other.

Honest Challenges — Where This View Faces Difficulty

Is It Too Convenient?

Critics from both sides level the same charge: the already/not yet view tries to have it both ways. It affirms healing to satisfy the charismatics and qualifies the affirmation to satisfy the cessationists.

From the healing-in-the-atonement side, the critique is that the already/not yet view does not take faith seriously enough. If healing is truly “in the atonement,” then believers should approach it with the same confidence they bring to forgiveness. The already/not yet qualifier — “available but not guaranteed” — can seem like a retreat from the full implications of the gospel.

From the cessationist side, the critique is that the already/not yet view opens the door to charismatic excess. If healing is “available” in some genuine sense, what prevents the view from sliding into the very faith-healing extremes it claims to avoid?

These are fair critiques. The already/not yet advocate must demonstrate that the position is not merely a diplomatic compromise but a genuine reading of the biblical evidence.

The “Already” Side Is Hard to Quantify

If healing is available but not guaranteed, how does a believer know when to keep praying and when to accept God’s “no”? The already/not yet framework does not provide a clear answer to this practical question.

How long should one pray for healing before concluding that God’s answer is no? How does one distinguish between “persistent faith” and “denial of God’s sovereign no”? When does expectant prayer become presumption?

These are not abstract questions. They are the questions a believer asks at two in the morning when the diagnosis is grim and the prayers seem unanswered. The already/not yet view provides a theological framework, but the framework does not always provide clear practical guidance in the moment of crisis.

It Can Become Functionally Cessationist

In practice, some churches that officially hold the already/not yet view rarely pray for healing with genuine expectation. The “not yet” side of the equation dominates, and the “already” side fades into theory. Healing is affirmed in the doctrinal statement but absent from the prayer meeting.

When this happens, the already/not yet view becomes indistinguishable from practical cessationism. The label is different, but the lived experience is the same: the sick believer is not prayed for with expectation, and the church functions as though healing ended with the apostles.

The best advocates of the already/not yet view recognize this danger and actively work against it — insisting that both sides of the tension must be lived, not just affirmed in theory.

It Can Seem Like a Non-Answer

For the believer who simply wants to know, “Is healing in the atonement — yes or no?” the already/not yet answer can feel unsatisfying: “Yes, but not fully realized yet.”

This is a legitimate concern. There is a virtue in clarity, and the already/not yet position sacrifices some clarity in order to hold the full range of biblical evidence together. Whether that trade-off is worth making is something the reader must decide.

But the already/not yet advocate would respond: the question itself is too simple. The atonement’s benefits do not all arrive at once. Justification is immediate. Sanctification is progressive. Glorification is future. If we can accept that pattern for salvation, why not for healing?

What the Best Advocates Say

Counseling the Sick

The best already/not yet pastors counsel the sick with both faith and humility:

Pray with genuine expectation. God heals. The Spirit gives gifts of healing. Healing is a real foretaste of the kingdom. Do not approach God with a theology that expects nothing.
Hold lightly. God is sovereign, and His timing is not ours. If healing does not come, it is not evidence of your failure. It is evidence that we live between the ages — and the full healing is coming.
Do not abandon hope. Whether healing comes in this life or at the resurrection, it is certain. Christ has purchased the redemption of your body. That redemption is as sure as your forgiveness.
Use medicine. Medical care is a gift of God’s common grace and a means through which He often works. There is no conflict between praying for healing and seeking treatment.

Handling Healing Testimonies

The already/not yet advocate celebrates healing testimonies as genuine foretastes of the kingdom — signs that God is at work, that the Spirit is active, that the resurrection has cast its light backward into the present age. But they do not make these testimonies normative for all believers. Not every believer will experience miraculous healing, and the absence of a healing testimony is not evidence of spiritual deficiency.

Handling Ongoing Suffering

The already/not yet advocate affirms what the cessationist tradition has always taught: God is present in suffering. Suffering can be purposeful. It can draw the believer closer to Christ. It can produce endurance, character, and hope. The lack of healing does not mean the lack of God’s love — it means that the full expression of His redemptive work is still unfolding.

“For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.” --- Romans 8:18 (KJV)

The already/not yet view refuses to let this verse cancel the healing passages, and it refuses to let the healing passages cancel this verse. Both are true. Both must be lived. The tension is the shape of faith in a world where the kingdom has come but has not yet fully come.

Cross-References

Chapter 1: Isaiah 52:13—53:12 — The Hebrew word study underlying the debate about physical versus spiritual healing in the atonement
Chapter 1: Matthew 8:16—17 — Matthew’s application of Isaiah 53:4 to physical healing, a key text for the “already” side
Chapter 1: 1 Peter 2:24 — Peter’s spiritual application of Isaiah 53:5, a key text for the “not yet” nuance
Chapter 1: Related Passages — Romans 8:22—23, 1 Corinthians 15:42—44, Revelation 21:4 — the eschatological framework
Healing Is in the Atonement View — The position that emphasizes the “already” dimension
Spiritual Healing Only View — The position that emphasizes the “not yet” dimension
Pastoral Considerations — Practical wisdom for ministry that draws on the best of all three views